


Living in Sunshine

by ladygray99



Category: White Collar
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being inside made Neal learn to appreciate different things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living in Sunshine

Neal had avoided prison; he’d even avoided little county lockups. That didn’t mean he didn’t know what to expect. He ran with a crowd that had done time. He knew once he was inside a charming smile was not going to get him the kind of attention he wanted. He was sure at some point he’d have to fight.

That some point came fifteen minutes into his first day. Neal hated violence, hated weapons but when he saw that ham of a fist come towards him he lashed out to survive. People later told him he fought like a girl; knee to the groin, elbow to the throat, heal of the hand to the nose and while the thug whose name he never got was going down he picked the toothbrush shiv from the thug’s pocket and drove it into his leg. Nothing fatal but it had to have hurt.

Neal found out that you really can’t plead self defence when you’re already in prison and someone decided to make an example of him.

The first day in solitary he meditated. The second day he paced. The third he did push ups. The fourth was sit ups. The fifth he paced some more. And by the sixth he started going a little mad. He lost track of time, track of days. He tried to talk to the guards but they were well trained down in the pits. He scratched out days on the wall but he was never sure if it was day or night. Never sure how long he was sleeping. Each meal was the same. It may have been a week or a month, he wasn’t sure any more.

Somewhere in the second week, or maybe the third Neal heard someone down the hall start to scream. It sounded like a good idea. He screamed as well. Until the guards came and shut him up.

After thirty days the guards dragged him out and tossed him in the yard. He stumbled and fell but no one took notice. He rolled onto his back and felt the sun on his face. He began to laugh.

~

Byron’s coat was warm against the biting November wind and June’s arm was locked tight around his as they strolled through the park. The days had been clouded over for what felt like weeks but June had insisted on a walk.

Somewhere around the frozen duck pond the clouds began to thin and there was a sliver of sun. Neal turned to it closing his eyes against the light but soaking up the few rays in the biting cold.

June patted his arm. “How long did they have you in solitary?”

Neal didn’t even ask how June knew. June just seemed to know a lot of things. “Too damn long. A month I think.”

June turned to face the sun with him. “Byron loved the sunlight too.”


End file.
